“This guy wasn’t ready for e-sports.” said Dustin when he was talking about a Terran unit, the Diamondback from Wings of Liberty campaign. He then continued with other campaign units such as the Specter, Goliath, Wraith, Hercules and the Predator (transformer inspired cyber cat), and he does have his valid points, as a veteran Brood War player I get it. The role of a Specter and a Ghost is too similar, Banshee is way more terrifying than a Wraith, Viking solves the Goliath’s mobility problem, a Metal Gear like unit the Thor around is badass, a Hercules is like a Nydus Worm flying in the air so it’s a “meh” and I have no idea where can the Predator fit in (heck, did you even use it thoroughly in the campaign?). Anyway, I’m also assuming that when he said “This guy wasn’t ready for esports.” it also means that the unit won’t be able to make the audience go wild, like Banelings exploding, Hellions burning and Sentries Force Fielding like a bauss, that’s what makes SC2 e-sports fun to watch.

 

 

While Dustin have good intentions for SC2 e-sports, but I think he’s going a bit off track. “Not ready for esports” he said, how does he know that the Diamondback is not exciting? That's just his opinion, I'm pretty sure the pros have never have the chance to test out how fun it is in a multiplayer format, they can theory craft all they want but playing it is different. His statement is also contradicting his SC2 e-sports design philosophy, because some SC2 units are kinda "meh" too, thus not being used because of the constant patches or a design that has gone wrong.

 

 

I want to question Dustin whether it was the right call to change something that’s not broken, of course I'm aware that not every unit in BW was used. And yes SC2 is a different game, it has a better path system and a new engine, so it’s different from BW. But it is also a sequel which by right it should succeed its predecessor with a very much improved e-sports content and element. The potential has not yet fully bloom in my opinion, it’s a good game BUT it can be even better, why do you think South Korea and BW veterans have not truly accepted it as a true successor? Surely they see something that the new comers don’t.

 

Based on my experience and observation, the problem with the Colossus is that it’s not as exciting as the Reaver from BW, yes they’re not the same units and serve different roles but the presense of a Reaver makes you sht your pants more than the Colossi, plus the Reaver shot makes people sit at the edge of their seats whenever its scarab (Reaver’s armament) is chasing a group of workers or army. Don't get me wrong, the Colossus is a cool unit and uniquely designed. But I don't think it's ready for e-sports.

 

 

 

Second placed most boring SC2 unit is the Corruptor, this one is easy to figure out. There are only two reasons why Zerg players should make one, first is to hard counter the Colossus (rarely any Battlecruiser, Carrier and mamaship appear in vs. Zerg match ups, plus a Hydralisk is more cost efficient to counter Void Rays). And the another reason for it to appear is so that you can make a Brood Lord, it’s as equivalent as saying “Oh, I’m just being friends with you so that I can get closer to your sister.”

 

Now as for the Roach…to be honest I think the unit is fine, tunneling those bastards underground into the enemy’s base secretly is exciting. I’m surprised that the mamaship isn’t at the top three, which I complained about in this article.

 

Of course Blizzard is aware of this, they know the issue too of units being too boring, like the Immortal and Overseer, according to David Kim they are gonna redesign those two units again until the next expansion comes out which is good. But sometimes they also do a bad job on redesigning or rebalancing, such as the upcoming patch 1.4.0 the latest update was nerfing the Infestor’s Neural Parasite, disallowing it to take affect on massive class units. Seriously Blizzard? SERIOUSLY? Though it solves ZvP problem, it's gonna be a Zerg massacre in TvZ if Terran decides to roll with a mech ball. Besides, nobody is going bother upgrading it, using 100 energy on any unit that is not massive type is just simply not worth the cost, the skill is gonna be quite useless to upgrade like the Thor’s 250mm Cannon ability .

 

I think Blizzard is trying too hard to please both pros and casual players, it’s just nigh impossible. It’s just like saying a timber company trying to please environment activists, while trying to make money out of the trees at the same time. Listen Blizzard, casuals will never take the game seriously, they will only play team games and the silly mods you guys created, and will almost have no intention of climbing the 1v1 ladder, ever.

 

I’ve also always wondered why Blizzard couldn’t wait a little more longer for the metagame to evolve just like what they did in the BW days, it only has two balance patches after all. SC2 has six officially excluding beta balance patches, and many more to come with two more expansions. Blizzard, it’s still not too late to stop spoon feeding, isn't it time to let the players grow with determination and skill? Because no matter how many times you balance it, the pros will always be on top, do not overlook the survival of the fittest in e-sports.

 

Anyway Blizzard, two more expansions means two more chances left to fix things right. Don't be surprise the surplus of SC2 players when DotA2 and Counter-strike: Global Offensive comes out. And for the readers, GLHF in your weekends ahead *smiley*.